Toronto heat problems addressed by UD center

The snowbirds who migrate from icy Toronto to tropical climes every winter might be surprised to learn that more people die from summer heat in their home city than in such sun-drenched hotspots as Miami, Dallas and Phoenix.

The problem, according to Laurence Kalkstein, director of UD's Synoptic Climatology Laboratory and associate director of the Center for Climatic Research, is that Toronto is a cool-weather city and, therefore, its residents are unaccustomed to the intensity of summer heat waves.

"It is not the pure heat that kills," Kalkstein said. "It is the variability of the climate."

In cities closer to the equator, where the weather is consistently warm, people have adapted to the rigors of heat, Kalkstein said. People who live in cities in regions where the weather is generally colder have not. "In Philadelphia, for instance, you have brick houses with black tar roofs," Kalkstein said. "During times of extreme heat, people bake themselves to death."

Kalkstein is now working with officials in Toronto to save lives by establishing a hot weather warning system that will provide residents a warning about two days in advance of an anticipated heat wave.

The system will take into account the type of air mass delivering hot temperatures, the time of year, the predicted duration of the hot spell and other factors.

The Toronto system will be similar to others that UD's Center for Climatic Research has put in place in Rome, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., southwestern Ohio.

The center also is currently developing warning systems for Shanghai and Phoenix.

The University of Delaware's Synoptic Climatology Laboratory ranks among the world leaders in heat health work, Kalkstein said, and he and his graduate students are collaborating with a growing number of urban areas interested in using their services to establish forecasting systems.

The Center for Climatic Research has undertaken the hot weather warning system projects in cooperation with the National Weather Service.

It has received support from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as from the United Nations through the World Meteorological Organization, World Health Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme.

–Barbara Garrision